Bump!

In Col 2:7, Paul exhorts the Colossians to be “overflowing with thankfulness”, which to my mind evokes the image of carrying a full cup of water and walking about. If someone were to bump into me, I would be spilling over the water from the cup. I believe this was the imagery that Paul was using, that when a Christian is bumped into, thankfulness is what overflows. Jesus taught in Luke 6:45:

“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

What comes out of you when you get bumped into? Is it marked with anger, jealousy, bitterness and strife? Or can you cast that aside and labor to instead be reminded of God’s goodness, His love that has saved you? Thankfulness is not an automatic or reflex response. It is much easier to be spiteful, hateful and thankless, like a stone rolling downhill. But thankfulness needs effort and labor, like rolling a stone uphill. Let us be continually reminded (and to remind our young ones also) of the love God has for us, for in His love, our hearts cannot but respond with gratitude.

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The Inner Geek (and the New Office)

The move from Midview to church:

Some shots of the sanctuary (the pews haven't been brought in yet):

And once we settled into office:

Maybe it's part of my training as an engineer, but when I saw things that were not being used lying around the house and in office, I just had to make use of those things and decided to put together a computer system for my new office space:

When we settled down in the new office, there were quite a few things lying about:

• A spare 19" monitor
• My personal spare keyboard (a Microsoft Sidewinder) and a set of Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers
• A notebook cooler
• A picture frame, which got filled up really quick :)

I hooked up the monitor, keyboard and speakers to my netbook, set the display out as "projector only" and let the computer decide on the optimum resolution for the display. Lo and behold, it looked and felt just like a desktop! The cool thing is that I can switch between using the netbook exclusively if I need more privacy (the 10" screen of my netbook is harder to take a peek at from behind, and I can use my mouse like a leftie), or if I need to run video calls from the webcam.

Zoom out a bit more, and you'll see my trusty iPad propped on a book stand.

You'll also notice that I have my iPhone connected to the netbook. I had to tether my 3G connection over the past two days, as our internet connection hasn't been set up yet in the new office. Although slower than WiFi, I still managed to upload photos to my Photobucket account, download videos and music for sermon prep, and use gChat with Christine.

Insert random pictures of cute kids here (Alex and Caroline brought Tiffany and Ian around the new office):

And a picture of the office eskimo, Irene:

And the last shot of the whole office (I saved the best for last!)

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My Acoustic Rig

I'm an unconventional acoustic guitarist. Rather than going through the traditional route of drilling and installing an acoustic preamp on my "purely acoustic" acoustic, I decided to go with a Seymour Duncan Woody pickup:

Contrary to what your pre-conceived notions of acoustic pickups may tell you, it doesn't sound bad at all going through a PA and a keyboard amp (which I suspect is due to the fact that keyboard amps accept line-level and mic inputs to provide flat-response output). I've used this for acoustic gigs, corporate prayer meetings and church, and you know what? I've learnt that the audience can't tell the difference. Yes, I can't EQ the tone, adjust the volume or correct any phase issues, but the basic tone of an acoustic is there.

And the things I bring for the acoustic gig are:

• A Korg Pitchblack tuner
• A Visual Sound 1Spot power supply
• A guitar lead

Yes, it's a rather strange setup for an acoustic rig, but here were my considerations in making this rig:

1. I'm a sucker for passive pickups. Every acoustic preamp has the problem of 9V batteries waiting to die on you at the most incredible of times. With a dedicated power supply, my mind is free from that point of worry.
2. With a tuner pedal, I'm able to mute the output with the click of a switch, instead of having to memorize the volume on the acoustic preamp, turn it down, and then having to turn it up when it's time to play again. And that's assuming the 9V battery hasn't died yet.
3. You might be aghast at the length of cable that's floating about, but trust me, I'd rather have more cable length to walk around the stage than have too little and be confined to a corner, which is probably next to the drummer (and his cymbals).

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